readers

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Doom-tastic Saison w/ EKG Brewday

Today had several highlights. First, I got the new MF Doom/Jneiro Jarel album, Keys to the Kuffs, in the mail (well, technically, it showed up yesterday, but I wasn’t home, so I had to go to the Post Office this morning and sign for it). Along with the album in the package was the newest Frank 151 featuring MF Doom. And on top of all of that, I brewed—listening to the new Doom, of course—with East Coast Yeast for the first time. So everything’s coming up roses. Oh, and Jeffrey, I poured off a bit of the excess fluid in the yeast to taste, and it has the same sourness yours did. Another sweet bonus in an already fantastic day.

Brewed: 8/25/2012Secondary: 9/4/2012 @ 1.016Bottled: 9/22/2012 w/ 4 oz. table sugarOG: 1.054FG: 1.006Tasting
Notes: So I can now definitively assert that I understand the effects that come
from stressing yeast via pitching low cell counts. I let this vial of East
Coast Yeast sit around a little too long, and since I was pressed for time, I
decided to skip making a starter to build up the yeast numbers. This beer is
cost of that decision. While it is by no means undrinkable, the perfume-y and
phenolic yeast character gives this beer an almost plastic/adhesive taste—it is
bleeding phenolic and ester characteristics, which is completely unlike 126.Saison w/ Comet, the beer after this one that was pitched on this yeast cake. The difference is, well, pretty remarkable. Although I will confess,
I do like it—it verges into Hennepin on crack, where all the banana fruit flavors
and clove have aggressively taken over. Plus, it is dry and crackery on the mouth with tang
from the yeast by-products and also the carbonation—the combination is crisp
and delightful. But some more concrete details: the beer pours a pale hazy
straw with a profuse white head that lingers and laces the glass. It also has
lots of streaming carbonation up the sides of the glass—you can almost see it
in the picture there was so much at the beginning. The nose in banana cream pie
and perfume coupled with a peppery phenol that is lighter than clove but heavier
than black pepper: I think the over-the-top yeast character Hennepin comparison
might actually hold up, although this beer is drier in the body and mouthfeel.
Flavors open with cracker and bread crust along with a touch of creaminess; the
yeast flavors start at the tail end of the front, but blossom in the middle
before continuing on into the finish. There is light, delicate fruit, like
banana and pear, as well as spice and pepper; the bitterness comes into play in
the middle, but is covered over in part by the yeast. The finish is yeast
esters and perfume—it is floral and rose-like—before the banana creaminess
reasserts itself. There is also a touch of tartness in the finish, and
lingering hop bitterness in the back of the mouth. The beer starts soft on the
tongue in front, but quickly dries out and is accompanied by a cracker-y
carbonic bite from the bright carbonation. It is a good beer, but the yeast
character would put a fair number of people off; I do like an aggressively dry
and Belgian saison, but 126. Saison w/ Comet is just so much more balanced with
the flavors (both hop and yeast) and intangible yeast characteristics that it
makes this beer pale in comparison. I can say, however, that I do love this
yeast. Maybe not as much as Wyeast 3711, but if it can knock out beers like
these on a regular basis, we might have a fight on our hands.